Mekong River

And the following week from Vietnam, we have a wonderful group of Travel Show listeners joining me in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Vietnam on a Mekong River cruise.

We start at Siem Reap, and that's Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom.

You remember the movie Tomb Raiders? We go right to the very door.

It is a country in which imperialism has worked great good and wrought great evil, in which economic imperialism and humanitarian imperialism have been clearly enough revealed, often in conflict, in which imperialism has created what may prove to be, unless wisely dealt with, its own nemesis, a native nationalism.

Subsection French admirals in Indochina there is a map of indo-china comprising siam cambodia cochin china anam laos tonkin and the malay states on page three hundred thirteen french empire builders of the eighteenth century had india almost within their grasp only to lose it to england but french imperialists of the nineteenth century sought and found compensation relatively small compensation in the great peninsula which juts down east of india the beginnings of french empire in this region are traced back by french historians to the reign of louis the fourteenth when a french missionary persuaded the emperor of annam to seek the aid of france in his wars with the result that in seventeen eighty seven a treaty was signed giving france a bay and an island on the indo-chinese coast the treaty was allowed however to become a dead letter the new french empire in the east was founded by french admirals during the reign of napoleon the third to avenge the murder of a spanish missionary bishop in eighteen fifty seven a franco-spanish naval expedition was sent against the emperor of nam tao duk who ruled the eastern part of the indo-chinese peninsula so earnest was the french admiral in his indignation at the outrage upon the spanish missionary the expedition only ended with the signature of a treaty june fourth eighteen sixty two ceding to france three provinces of cochin china over which the anamese emperor had been suzerain and giving french merchants the right to ascend from cochin china up the great mekong river the treaty also permitted french and spanish missionaries to endeavor to convert the natives in here was a good beginning a few years later the remaining three provinces of cochin china were conquered by another french admiral just north of cochin china astride the mekong river lay the kingdom of cambodia which was claimed as a vassal both by inam on the east and siam on the west here also Christians were being murdered.

Accordingly, a French admiral intervened, and the King of Cambodia was persuaded to sign a treaty, 1863, accepting the protection of France, giving Frenchmen freedom to travel or reside in Cambodia, and Cambodians alike freedom to travel and reside in France, admitting French merchandise free of duty, and allowing Catholic missionaries to preach and teach in Cambodia.

france now had cochin china and cambodia a compact block of territory at the mouth of the mekong in the southern tip of the peninsula to the north stretched the large kingdom of siam and the empire of anam both independent and still farther north was populous china whose trade french merchants hoped to tap by way of the mekong valley a shorter and better route into southern china was offered by the red river which runs through tonkin a northern tributary province of To this river, a French naval lieutenant, François Gagné, was sent with 175 men and two gunboats in 1873 under instructions to secure for Frenchmen the exploitation of the Yunnan mines in southern China, and also to settle a dispute between the Annamite officials who governed Tonkin and a French merchant who had contracted to supply a Chinese general with arms.

Gagné settled the dispute by conquering the delta of the Red River, the most valuable part of Tonkin.

france might then have held tonquin but gagniere was killed and his successor knowing that the cabinet at paris would not approve a permanent occupation of tonquin contented himself with the signature of a most ingenious treaty eighteen seventy four between france and the somewhat awed emperor of annam by this interesting document the president of the french republic promised to protect the emperor of nam and provide him with assistance in maintaining order destroying piracy and resisting attacks and furthermore to give him five steamships a hundred cannon and a thousand rifles as well as to furnish experts to reorganize the annamese army and navy financiers to take charge of annamese finances and professors to found an annamese college there were many other clauses but perhaps it is sufficient to say that annam became a french protectorate and annam included tonquin an interesting and unfortunate episode followed french merchants in tonquin found themselves subjected to exactions extortions and attacks by pavillons noirs or black flags who were generally considered as pirates but certainly not of the familiar captain kidd variety the french suspected or at least alleged the emperor of nam or perhaps the officials of china were backing the black flags but these quasi piratical gentlemen had to be eradicated if french commercial aims were to be satisfied a naval officer was sent with a small force to restrain them under strict instructions not to shoot and not to attempt a war of conquest like garnier however he became a conqueror and met an untimely but glorious death which had to be avenged by a new punitive expedition and this led to war with china in view of the fact that annam sent triennial tribute to peking the mandarins in that imperial city considered annam and its dependency tonkin vassals of china peking therefore requested france to evacuate tonkin chinese armies were thrown into the disputed land the resulting war between france and china from eighteen eighty three to eighteen eighty five convinced the peking government that obstructing european imperialism is rather dangerous in a chastened mood china agreed to a series of treaties eighteen eighty five eighteen eighty six eighteen eighty seven recognizing the french protectorate over nam and the french occupation of tonkin reducing the chinese tariff by twenty per cent and later by thirty per cent on goods imported into china across the tonkin border and promising to seek the aid of french industry when railways were to be built one of the quaint freaks of history is that the french politician who was most responsible for the conquest of tonquin jules ferri was bitterly assailed as le tonquinois and was overthrown by a parliamentary vote of no confidence on march thirtieth eighteen eighty five after the victory over china had been won but just before peace had been concluded ferri's work is now regarded with pride in france for tonquin and annam are cherished possessions tonkin in the north and cochin china in the south both great rice-growing regions have been likened to two bags of rice hung at the ends of a rather flimsy stick that is the narrow coastal strip of an arm france now had the bag and the stick the next task was to enlarge the bags and thicken the stick the french domain in tonkin was rounded out by military operations in the process known as pacification which lasted from eighteen eighty five to eighteen eighty seven the conquest of laos which lies between annam and the mekong river thickened the stick and in the south the french protectorate of cambodia was rounded out at the expense of siam all these territories cambodia cochin china annam laos and tonkin and the least port of quang chauan on the coast of china are now grouped together under a french governor-general and constitute an imposing french asiatic empire almost fifty per cent larger than the mother country inhabited by twenty million poor but industrious peasants and artisans

no french colony

writes a french imperialist

If I tell you the whole truth of everything, it takes too much time.

okay so he he took my passport and he took he told me gave me 500 Thai baht and unfortunately you know uh like you know you know there is a many country like uh in the world they are not charging uh you know tourists for existing the country like whenever we exit so nobody is charging but he charged me 500 Thai baht i gave him 500 Thai baht then after that he told me uh He come with me and he told me, just go down because there is a river between Laos and, you know, Thailand is Mekong River.

Yes.

So he told me, the officer told me, there is a boat, they are waiting for you, go down.

So I just put my bag down and get my passport and go down on the boat.

Wow.

when boat crossed the mekong river and got there the golden laos side when when boat arrived at laos side so i just out from the boat and i saw there is a another man he was waiting for me he showed my selfie and said yes he told me give me your passport i give i gave my passport then after that uh he helped me to pass the immigration laos immigration office Even without checking my bag, nothing, they just gave me a business visa for three months.

Wow.

We're Vietnam and Cambodia.

We're on a river cruise down the Mekong.

So there's all kinds of various things that we're doing.

We were just this summer, I took a group down to Peru.

You can still hear the songs.

And standing in front of the Chaktamuk Conference Hall, this amazing angular geometric building on the Mekong River that was designed to look like a fanned-out palm leaf, you can just squint your eyes and travel back in time.

I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today, it's all about time travel.